In Western traditions, during a celebration such as New Years, birthdays and weddings, champagne and the popping of the cork is an integral part of the event. If you are watching the final championship of an important title game in football, baseball or racing, what is the tradition? It is usually the popping of champagne bottles and flowing of endless cheers of happy celebrations. With the Chinese Spring Festival or known as Chinese New Years in the West, the time of celebration and good cheer will be upon us soon.

Mr Lee and a customer are brewing their own beer.

What is the traditional drink in China? Without a doubt, it is Bai Jiu 白酒 literally means "white liquor" or sometimes referred to as white wine, but make no mistake it is strong distilled liquor usually about 40-60% alcohol by volume. By comparison, most Western liquors are usually 40% and wine is 12-14% and beer is 4-6%. Bai Jiu is usually distilled from sorghum 高粱 GaoLiang and can vary in quality and price.

The low end is Erguotou 二锅头 can be bought in any corner store in a small 250ml green bottle for 2rmb or the most expensive 50 year aged class made by Wuliangye 五粮液 (literally means 5 grain drink from Sichuan province) will cost over 26,000 yuan (over $3,000) for a one liter bottle. For the Westerner, the taste of BaiJiu is formidable, no matter at what level of quality due to the higher strength and is usually referred to as "jet fuel". Fortunately, it is usually served in very small glasses. However, the problem is at a banquet there are many guests and many small glasses and the tradition is to down the glass in one gulp, referred to as "Gan Bei" 干杯 literally dry glass or in the West: "Bottoms Up".

One can try to avoid the ritual by trying to substituting your BaiJiu with water or trying to convince your host to spare you by proposing the toast: Sui Yi 随意 which means "as you please" or "cheers" in place of the traditional, "bottoms up" GanBei. Even proposing half salute or "BanBei"半杯, literally "half glass" may be acceptable but be prepared that all this may be in vain, because "Face" or saving face, is extremely important in this society and nothing is more cherished by the Chinese host than seeing his guests be happy. By Chinese standards, success is measured by the amount of liquor consumed and if the guest becomes inebriated to a state of being intoxicated, the host has succeeded and it was a great party.

BaiJiu has been produced in China for the past 5,000 years and has many classifications, one method is by fragrance. The first fragrance is known as "Sauce" or JiangXiang 酱香 a highly fragrant distilled liquor of bold character, named for its similarity in flavor to Chinese fermented bean pastes and soy sauces. To the Western palate, sauce fragrance Baijiu can be quite challenging. It has large amounts of chemical compounds, which in combination with the ethanol in the liquor, imparts a sharp solvent-like note. To the initiated, it is quite delicious and is considered the perfect complement for fine preserved and pickled foods JiangCai 酱菜.

Mr Zhang Jie

This class is also referred to as "Mao-scented" 茅香, after the best-known liquor of this class, Moutai. Moutai is produced in the town of Maotai 茅台 in the southwest China, in the province of GuiZhou. The reason there is the difference in the commercial name of Moutai and the official pinyin, MaoTai, is because the brand name is over 200 years old and was translated using the traditional Romanization method. In a similar fashion to the existence of old names of Tientsin and Peking for Tianjin and Beijing respectively. There is also thick fragrance, NongXiang 浓香 or LuXiang 泸香. This is a class of distilled liquor that is sweet tasting, soft and velvety in texture, and mellow, with a gentle lasting fragrance. Most of these liquors are made using fungus type starters. An example of this type of liquor is the expensive one, WuLiangYe from the city of Yibin in the province of Sichuan.

Other fragrances are: light fragrance qīngxiāng 清香or fēnxiāng 汾香: Delicate, dry, and light, with a delectable mellow and clean texture in the mouth. An example of this kind of liquor is Fenjiu 汾酒 from the north China province of Shanxi 山西. Not to be confused with the neighboring province of Shaanxi. It is interesting that the actual pinyin translation for both provinces is the same so in order to make a difference; they added the extra “a” although tones are different. The way I remember the difference is the capital city for Shaanxi is Xian 西安 and Taiyuan 太原is the capital of Shanxi.

Finally there are rice fragrance BaiJiu mǐxiāng 米香 and honey fragrance fēngxiāng 蜂香, a class of distilled liquor with the fragrance of honey. Liquors of this class are subtle in flavor and sweet in taste; and layered fragrance: jiānxiāng 兼香or fùxiāng復香 which is a combination of all the above fragrances. Each province will have a local brand but the most famous and well-known brands are from the province of Guizhou with MouTai achieving international recognition with its white ceramic bottle.